As was stated in U.S. provisional patent application serial No. 60/056,984 entitled "Protective Garment And Method Of Manufacture" filed on Aug. 26, 1997, in the names of Debra Nell Welchel, Alan Edward Wright, Jay Amedee Poppe and Vivian Grey, there are many types of limited use or disposable protective garments and apparel designed to provide barrier properties. The entirety of this application is hereby incorporated by reference.
One type of protective garment is protective coveralls. Coveralls can be used to effectively seal off a wearer from a harmful environment in ways that open or cloak style garments such as, for example, drapes, gowns, shirts, pants and the like are unable to do. Accordingly, coveralls have many applications where isolation of a wearer from a work environment is desirable. For example, it may be desirable to isolate a worker from a hazardous environment. As another example, it may be desirable to isolate an environment (e.g., a clean room) from a worker.
For a variety of reasons, it is desirable for protective garments to be manufactured from materials which prevent or significantly retard the passage of hazardous liquids and/or pathogens therethrough. It is also desirable for the protective apparel to isolate persons from dusts, powders, and other particulates which may be present in a work place or accident site. Generally speaking, protective apparel rely on the barrier properties of the fabrics used in their construction. Some of these fabrics may even have received treatments to enhance barrier properties.
Barrier performance of protective apparel also depends on the design and construction of the garment. Apparel containing many seams may be unsatisfactory, especially if the seams are located in positions where they may be subjected to stress and/or direct contact with hazardous substances. Seams located at the front of apparel are particularly susceptible to stress and/or direct contact with hazardous substances. For example, seams that join sleeves or legs to the body portion of protective coveralls are often subjected to stress. Moreover, sleeve seams in the front of coveralls and seams about the chest are at locations of frequent accidental splashing, spraying and/or other exposures.
After use, it can be quite costly to decontaminate protective apparel that has been exposed to hazardous substances. Thus, there exists a need in the art for protective apparel which is more easily decontaminated.
Protective apparel (garments) must be worn correctly to reduce the chance of exposure. Workers are more likely to wear protective garments (e.g., protective coveralls) properly if the garments are comfortable. One way to increase comfort is to have the garment fit well. A protective garment that fits well also is advantageous in that, when the wearer is working in a confined space, generally speaking, the better fitting the protective garment, the less likely it is that the protective garment will be inadvertently torn, punctured or get "hung up on" the worker's surroundings. This is so because a good fitting protective garment will tend to conform more closely to the wearer's body. Accordingly, if the wearer stays clear of surrounding projections etc., as is the natural tendency, the likelihood of the protective garment contacting projections etc. will be decreased.
One of the problems associated with achieving a satisfactory fit in those protective garments which totally enclose the wearer is the fact that the wearer of the garment, because s/he is totally enclosed by the garment, needs to wear equipment, such as life support air tanks, on his/her back.
Accordingly, in such instances, the protective garment must also enclose this equipment. Past protective garment designs have attempted to address this problem by incorporating a backpack onto the back area of the garment. This backpack may be envisioned as joining a bag shaped appendage about an opening located in the back area of the garment with the opening and the bag being shaped to receive equipment such as, for example, life support equipment.
While these prior backpack containing protective garments have been marketed and sold, they are not without problems. One problem is that these backpacks do not possess any viable mechanism by which they tend to conform to the equipment. That is, there is no mechanism urging a tight, yet comfortable, fit. Accordingly, the bag portion of these backpacks tends to hang down in a crumpled or multi-folded manner. The downward hanging of these packs creates its own problems in that the bag portion of the backpack has a greater tendency to hang-up on or get snagged by objects in the work area. Naturally, this situation is not desirable in that it may well lead to the garment being ripped or torn and thus compromised. Another problem associate with this type of backpack on protective garments is the fact that the many folds in the bag portion of the garment tend to retain contaminates from the work area. This makes decontamination of the garment when the wearer wishes to exit it more difficult, time consuming and thus, more frustrating.
Thus, a need exists for an inexpensive protective garment with attached backpack which provides a better fit, is more comfortable to wear, reduces the tendency of the backpack to snag and/or which reduces the degree of retention of contaminates retained within the folds of the backpack.